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Cabbage & Green Beans wrap with Everyday Dal

This is a roti, subzi & dal meal (bread with a vegetable & pulse preparation) transformed into a meal comprising a great vegetable wrap and a side mung dal soup! What do you think? 🙂 This is to basically break the monotony of serving chapati with vegetable and rice with some dal. My mom makes this subzi often especially for me when I visit my parents. How did I come to love this subzi? As a child I was not fond of mustard seeds- agh, those black round seeds on my plate! I would try my best to remove all of them to the side of my plate. Then my mom would sneak up on me and tell me to mix all of them with the vegetable and eat. I would eat with my eyes closed. However, I slowly began to like mustard seeds. Although, I don’t particularly like when they are used in excess! Besides mustard seeds, another interesting thing about this subzi is that my mom cuts the green beans into thin slices, resembling sliced green chili pieces. I used to show off my school lunch box and tell my friends, “see I can eat lots of chili” LOL. I was so silly. Of course, some of my friends could tell the difference. Anyways, I want to share this household recipe with you. It might appeal to those not fond of mustard or cabbage or green beans!

The dal recipe is my all-time favorite. Quick and flavorful, I assure you it takes hardly 10 minutes if you have already cooked the mung dal earlier and refrigerated it. I call it the everyday dal recipe because you can use this recipe for any kind of dal, with or without skin or mixed dals. Whenever you cook dal, cook some extra amount so that you can refrigerate part of it for use later in the week. Just jazz it up with the spices you like over ghee or oil, with or without onion and tomato and you have a nice healthy side packed with proteins and vitamins, ready within minutes.

Tip: If you want to convert it into a main by serving it as a soup, don’t forget to add some colorful vegetables as well! Carrots, green bell pepper, green peas would go well. It would also be better to use dals with skin to increase the fiber content, or mix different dals to add variety.

I prefer to use a medium sized cabbage head with leaves that look fresh and light green in color. If the cabbage is small, its leaves are probably very tightly wrapped together and is likely to be less juicy. Check the tightness of the leaves before you purchase.

Wash the cabbage head after discarding the soiled or damaged leaves. Slice it into half and cut the hard core. Now, thinly slice the cabbage longitudinally and then the other way round to create about 1″ shreds. You can refer to this video for slicing a cabbage.

Heat oil in a non-stick pan. When the oil is hot enough add mustard seeds and turn off the heat. If you are using an electric heating surface, move it to a cooler burner. The seeds will crackle. If you are not used to Indian cooking, cover the pan once you add the seeds. When the crackling stops, sprinkle asafetida.

Add the sliced cabbage and diced green beans. Sprinkle turmeric and red chili powder and saute on medium heat for 2-3 minutes. Leave the pan uncovered. Later, cover the pan and let the vegetables cook on low heat till done. It usually takes around 7-10 minutes.

Then add salt and sugar to balance the heat of the chili powder and mix well.

Serve over a wrap or as a side. Enjoy!

EVERYDAY DAL

Ingredients

1/2 cup mung dal

1/2 onion, finely chopped*

1 tomato, finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped

1/4 tsp cumin seeds

1/8 tsp asafetida

1/4 tsp turmeric powder

1/2 tsp red chili powder

1/2 green chili, cut into round pieces, optional

4-5 curry leaves

2 tsp ghee

Salt to taste

Cilantro leaves, chopped

* 1/2 onion in US = 1 red onion in India

Procedure

Wash and rinse mung dal and add double (1 cup) of water. Pressure cook it along with rice or any other vegetables in stackable cooker containers. The dal usually takes around 10 minutes after the first whistle (Indian cooker- eg Prestige) or around 10 minutes on low heat after the pressure regulator starts rocking (US pressure cooker- eg. Presto)

While the dal is cooking, chop the garlic, onions and tomatoes. Wash and pat dry curry leaves and cilantro separately.

Now, heat ghee in a steel pot. When the ghee is warm enough add the garlic and cumin seeds. When the seeds begin to sizzle, add asafetida and then the chopped onions & green chili. Saute on medium heat for 2-3 minutes. Let the onion becomes golden, but don’t let it caramelize – it will affect the taste and appearance of the dal.

When the onion is done add the chopped tomatoes and saute on medium heat till they soften.

Add turmeric powder and red chili powder and saute for 2 minutes on medium heat and turn off the heat. Set the pot aside till the mung dal is ready.

Mash the mung dal when done, so that it is homogeneous and pour it into the pot.

Add 1 cup of water, salt and chopped cilantro leaves. Stir and bring it to a boil and then serve!